It is inconvenient and sometimes impractical for people who regularly mail many pieces of mail to use postage stamps. As a result, postage meters have been developed which can be installed in a home or office. Such postage meters dispense value in the form of postage printed on a mail piece such as an envelope, or on a label which may be affixed to a mail piece. Such meters have means for selecting a value of postage, setting a date, and printing the value and date on an envelope or label.
Postage for such meters is generally purchased in advance. At the time of purchase, the meter is adjusted internally to dispense the total amount of postage purchased in any combination of increments which is desired. Accounting apparatus in the postage meter calculates how much postage the machine has dispensed, and how much additional postage has been paid for but not used.
Postage is dispensed in desired increments by printing a selected postage value, the date, and one or more symbols on an envelope, label or the like. The value and date are selected by rotating a series of print wheels to desired characters before the postage is dispensed.
Printing is usually accomplished by passing the envelope or label along a flat feeding surface. At the proper time, a clutch is released and a rotatable drum makes one revolution. The envelope passes between the drum and the feeding surface as the drum rotates, and the print wheels, which are in the drum, print the desired information on the envelope or the like.
In order to maintain security and control of the postage meters, government regulations prohibit manufacturers of postage equipment from selling the meters, and require that the meters be leased. However, other apparatus which is used with postage meters such as automatic feeding devices, weighing scales and the like, may be sold to customers. As a result, most manufacturers of postage equipment make postage meters which include a drum, print wheels for selecting the postage value and date, accounting apparatus and certain other things, and postage machines which include the feeding surface, automatic feeding apparatus, if any, and other features. The postage meters and postage machines are designed so that the postage meter may be easily separated from the postage machine and removed.
Since the postage meters can only be leased, and not sold, manufacturers must recover the cost of the meters over a period of time. Obviously, manufacturers prefer to recover such costs in as short a time as possible, which creates a need to reduce the cost of postage meters.
In recent years, some manufacturers of postage equipment have considered replacing certain mechanical apparatus with electronically controlled hardware. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,825, mechanical levers for setting the print wheels are replaced with servo motors. Since some electronic devices are relatively expensive, the conversion from mechanical to electrical systems in some cases has increased, rather than decreased the cost of the postage meter. Thus, there is also a need to reduce the cost of postage meters when replacing mechanical apparatus with electronics.
In known postage meters, the selection of postage values is made by moving a series of levers back and forth. In most cases, there are four such levers. Each lever has ten fixed positions which correspond to digits on an operatively connected print wheel.
Each lever turns a gear or the like which is operatively connected to a linear rack. If there are four levers, four racks will be provided. The racks are placed in recesses in the drum shaft and extend into the drum, where mechanisms are provided which translate the linear motion of the racks into a rotary motion which turns the respective print wheels to the proper characters when the levers are moved.
Due to the linear motion of the racks, the operator selecting values must move the levers extensively to change the selected digit in some cases. For example, the levers must substantially move from one end of travel to the opposite end of travel in order to change the selected digit from 0 to 9, from 1 to 9, and so forth, even though those digits are adjacent to each other or nearly adjacent to each other on the print wheel. This is inefficient and causes unnecessary wear on parts. Thus, there is a need for character selection systems for postage meters which operate over the shortest path between points on the print wheel.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide new and improved postage meters.
Another object is to provide new and improved postage meter character selection systems, including value selection systems and date selection systems.
Still another object is to provide new and improved character selection apparatus for postage meters which reduces the cost of the meter.
A still further object is to provide new and improved character selection apparatus for postage meters which reduces the cost of the meter when electronics replace mechanical apparatus.
Yet another object is to provide new and improved character selection apparatus for postage meters which uses the shortest path between characters on a print wheel during the character selection process.